Job applicants who agree to do job interviews via video conference are putting themselves at a disadvantage relative to those who do face-to-face interviews, says a study released this morning by McMaster University‘s DeGroote School of Business.

The study, which monitored the behaviour and perspectives of select MBA students at the school, as well as employer partners, found video conferencing interviews led to less likability from both the interviewer’s and interviewee’s perspective.

The study found the nuances of interpersonal communications were adversely affected by technological barriers created by video conferencing.

“As soon as you have the electronic barrier between two individuals, there’s going to be a lot of signal compression and things that are lost,” says Will Wiesner, the study’s co-author and associate professor of human resources at DeGroote. “Eye contact is an issue we highlighted in the study, but there’s other things as well. Interpersonal relations don’t form as well as in a face-to-face scenario.”

The study, which is published in the Management Decision journal, points out that webcams are usually placed above computer monitors, preventing direct eye contact from taking place.

The researchers recommend interviewers use video conferencing only for preliminary interviews. In addition, if video conferencing is being used for one candidate, it should be used for all of them in order to ensure a levelled playing field.

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“The odds are high that those being interviewed online are being harmed by the process relative to those being interviewed face to face,” says Prof. Wiesner. “They’re really comparing apples and oranges.”

Prof. Wiesner says the two-dimensional aspect of video-conference interviews prevents certain facial expression from being clearly visible to interviewers. In addition, interviewers face the dilemma of having to choose a close-up frame of the interviewee that eliminates all non-facial forms of body language or a longer range shot that allows all body language to be seen but makes facial expressions too far away to interpret.

Researchers noted interviewees rated interviewers as less attractive, personable, trustworthy and competent, putting employers competing for applicants in a small talent pool at a disadvantage. “The applicant has a decision to make, as well,” notes Prof. Wiesner.

Other obstructions include technical difficulties that break the flow of conversation and time lags that add unnecessary (and often awkward pauses).

The next phase of the study will explore the correlation between video conferencing interviews and job performance.

In a press release, the study’s authors offered the following tips to interviewers and interviewees alike when participating in or conducting interviews via video conference:

• Both interviewers and applicants should use the best equipment and internet connections they can afford to lessen delays or technical limitations which can lead to conversations becoming less fluid or interactive.

• Just as screen actors need to be particularly expressive with their faces and voices in order to convey feelings or emotions on camera, interviewers and applicants should be more expressive than usual. Practice nodding more noticeably, smiling more broadly, making greater use of hand gestures, varying vocal pitch, tonality and emphasis.

• Ensure that cameras are positioned close enough to catch facial expressions of both the interviewer and the candidate.

• To make a good impression on a candidate, interviewers should take extra time at the start of the interview to outline the process and engage in small-talk to allow the applicant to get comfortable with the technology.

• Have a notetaker, so that the interviewer does not further distance him or herself from the applicant by constantly looking down.